The Xbox Live Indie Games channel just put through a key change that should help publishers with marketing efforts for their games. Now, once a title has passed peer review, the developer may pick the date it publishes to the service.

What this means for consumers is that collaborative events such as the Indie Games Winter Uprising will be more coordinated, and less susceptible to titles missing a release date because they were stuck in approval.

Armless Octopus, the Xbox Live Indie Games review site, notes that reaction to the change is mixed-to-positive among the development community. Some cheered the decision, saying the chance to schedule releases helps them plan game promotion more sensibly. Others noted that scheduling would likely open a stampede to release on specific days (like, Friday) and a "game of chicken" trying to figure out the best time.